Amsterdam, the Netherlands, June 30, 2015 – John Mayer may have made a late dash to the Netherlands 2015, FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, but he is certainly making it worth his while.
The 33-year-old was supposed to be relaxing back home with his family in Los Angeles, but instead Sean Rosenthal’s decision to not play with Ryan Doherty meant that Mayer had to jump on a flight across the Atlantic to link up with his regular partner, who was filling in for the injured Phil Dalhausser alongside Rosenthal.
Late on Monday they wrapped up pool play with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-19) victory over Australia’s Isaac Kapa and Christopher McHugh, that means they top Pool B and stay on in Amsterdam for the knockout rounds.
“It was really last minute,” Mayer said. “I was making plans back in LA to take care of my daughter, so this is all just bonus volleyball and it is really fun to be in this environment.
“We love this city and we love this venue. It is like our home court now so everyone is coming to our venue, which is cool.”
Prior to the World Championships Mayer and Doherty have played only three tournaments together, all in 2015 with a ninth-place finish in Stavanger their best placing so far.
Doherty only began playing on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour in 2009 after switching to the sport from baseball. The 214cm (7-feet) tall player has since made giant strides and he used his full frame to boss the match at the net against the Australian duo.
“Australia is a really great team that has been playing really good lately, so we knew that they were a team that were never going to give up,” he said.
“We jumped out to a pretty big lead, but we needed every bit of it when they brought it back to 19 and a little bit of luck went our way at the end and we got the win.”